Sandy woke up, feeling excited since today was the fight against the kids. He noticed ariel, dallas and joe was already up. Guess they are as excited as he is for the fight. They went down to breakfast, the teens glaring at them. Well all except leo. Leo was smiling til charles let out a small snarl at him. Leo just glare back as he grab a plate. Jack pushes charles towards the other table so a fight won't break out between them.
Sandy guess leo didn't agree with their views about bitten and that he the only one learning the lessons audrey wanted them to learn. The others still had that air of superiority about them. They still look like ten and twelve years old though so he feels like he want to beat them but at the same time protect them. These two emotions don't mix and he hates feeling like this. He quickly ate his food, keeping an eye on ashley to see how she is on the day of her first shifting. She smelt so anxious which is to be expected. Anxiety was a sharp pepper like smell which cover the smell of his food. He try his best to ignore it, knowing she couldn't help it.
After breakfast they went to the battle arena which had benches for the audience. Sandy wasn't surprise since alex had a similar setup for his underground arena. Audrey told them to shift while the rest of her pack went to sit down. After shifting, they was ready for the fights to begin.
Sandy told guldo to go first since he was sure they was going to underestimate them or say guldo don't count since she is born. Audrey told the rest to sit up on the benches, leaving room for the fight. Ivy became the announcer for the event. "We have a fight challenge today. As we all know bitten werewolves are just as strong and capable as born ones. But these kids don't understand that. Which is why we are here today. Seems leo is up on the teens side."
Ivy didn't need anything to enhanced her voice since everyone can clearly hear her. Sandy saw that the others sneer at them as they sat on the opposite side. The fight started and ended in a few minutes due to guldo's years of being a traveler. She dodge and sandy saw that leo's heart wasn't in the fight. No wonder he wanted to fight first. Guldo pin him down, only letting him up once he submitted. The teens snarl at leo so he walk to their side. It seem they could tell he wasn't trying his best. Sitting next to ariel, he shook his head. "I didn't want to fight anyway. We are the same, born and bitten." He murmur to himself loud enough for them to hear.
Next is joe against grace. He stumbled a bit to the arena because of her appearance. Ariel told him to focus on the fight. Joe was the first one to lunge when grace dodge him. He growl loudly as he swipe, backing her around the fight circle. He grin as he lunge towards her, hoping to make her dodge left. Instead she duck and bit his paw, knocking him down. He kick her off when she try to pin him. Sandy watch the other teens and saw their eyes showing respect for joe cuz he is lasting so long. He look at the others in the pack, seeing them also watching with respect. He felt so proud even though grace won the fight in a few more moves.
At least they can see that they could fight just as well as born werewolves. It was a while before it was sandy turn to fight. Zamas won her fight against scarlet, dallas and sophia ended in a tie. While jack and ariel fight had to be stop due to them never giving up after an hour of fighting. Now it was him against the one who started it.
Charles. He had a smug look on his face as he went to the circle. He walk down slowly, showing no concern as he reach him, stretching out his front paws, showing his long claws. He saw a flash of worry in charles' eyes as he watch. He wait for him to make the first move as he begin to pace, growling in his throat.
Charles made his move, doing a lunge bite that he quickly sidestep and swipe a left claw, hitting his side. He put his full strength into the move, forgetting he is fighting a kid. Charles let out a loud whine as his side begin to bleed before slowly healing.
Sandy glare at him, telling him to submit before he attack since he not going to hold back. Charles snarls before jumping at him, which caught sandy by surprise. He felt charles teeth in shoulder before shoving him off. He wince as he felt his fur ripping out. They snarl as they clash again, rolling around and biting whatever they could. He puff out his fur as he did a bite flip, taking him by surprise before pinning him down. He knew he slammed Charles down a lot harder than he should but in a real fight, enemies never hold back. No matter how hard he try, he couldn't move. He let out a small growl before submitting.
"Guess I was wrong about bitten after all." Charles mutter as sandy let him go. Sandy gave a smug grin before going to his pack. The others was surprise at how rough sandy was during the fight. Guess angelo's move work way better than he thought.
Audrey stood up as the sun was setting, letting them know it was time for ashley shift. He didn't realize that the fights took so long since it was morning when they started. Of course after each fight, helen look over them, healing them with medicine. The other kids already start to treat them with the same respect as audrey's pack members. Zamas and scarlet was busy talking about their moves, how they can be better. Ariel and jack is busy having an arm wrestling contest to solve their tie. Ariel won of course due to age but he learnt that even werewolves pups can give him trouble. Joe, guldo and grace was talking about their past, and it was nice to see grace loosen up a bit. Dallas was watching ariel and jack, joining in when jack lost.
Ashley stood up, going towards audrey as the ritual was getting prepared in the fighting area. Audrey let out a loud howl to get everyone attention as helen and trix check ashley over. They was explaining what they was doing so she can understand and not be nervous. Sandy went to ashley, leaning on her in comfort, hoping his presence helps. Zamas watch, feeling concern since this would be the first werewolf ritual she seen.
"For our guests, I will explain the ritual. Everyone will be in wolf form, surrounding the new pup. Then helen will use herbs and sprinkle them on the new pup, as a way to calm her nerves. When the sun is fully set, we will howl, calling out ashley's wolf. We will then let ashley take the lead. So everyone, go and shift. Ashley is new so yes we need to be modest." Audrey gave a calm smile to ashley as trix and helen left to get the herbs.
After a few minutes, everyone circle around ashley as trix and helen sprinkle the herbs using their paws. Sandy kept standing by ashley side, seeing how the herbs relax her. Trix's wolf had light brown fur with grey ear tips and grey underbelly. If their wolf species was the same, sandy would have thought helen and trix are related since their wolves look opposite of each other. Helen' s wolf had dark grey fur with black ear tips and pale underbelly. Maybe they are related, he thought to himself. Trix could have taken after her father.
He shook his head to get rid of his thoughts so he can focus on comforting ashley. Helen told him that he can move since the herbs was doing their job. It was like catnip for werewolves. He felt zamas by his side, leading him to the spots in the circle that his pack left for them. The kids was already there and he smelt that they became fast friends with his pack. Guess strength really is important to werewolves. Even charles was more friendly. He saw audrey shift since ashley was pretty out of it, sitting on the ground, drawing a circle in the dirt with her finger. He sat down, getting ready to howl when audrey say it was time.
"Helen's herbs had suppress the human spirit so the wolf is closer to the surface." Scarlet whisper to them as they watch audrey and the healers walk a circle around ashley.
"Now they are following the moon's shape around ashley to give her good blessing from the great wolf. Only an alpha and the healers can do this part." Leo whisper as they finally stop.
The moon begin to rise and audrey led the howl. It made sandy feel so good inside, like his instincts was screaming at him to join in. He was trembling with the need but knew he had to wait til the others of her pack join in first. He saw ashley's shape changing, seeing the fur emerging from her skin. It was the same color as her hair but there was spots of yellow on her body. Unlike the other shifts he watch, there was no pain on ashley face, no smell of anxiety or fear. Does this mean that it was cuz of the human spirit that bitten people fight the change? She also had a blonde hair tuft that reminded him of stripefur.
He finally let out a howl full of his aura that help ashley changed faster, and audrey saw this as she stop howling. Soon it was only sandy's pack that was howling. Ashley's shift finished, sandy and his pack stop howling to see her slowly stand up. He gave a happy bark seeing that she look like his wolf type. She whine as she tuck her tail under her body, seeing that she was surrounded by other werewolves. Audrey nodded at sandy to take the lead since she can tell ashley chose to be with sandy's pack. Even now she can see how ashley's wolf relax when sandy went towards her to check her over, letting her know she is safe.
Sandy felt protective as he nose ashley's side, sensing that like dallas and zamas that she is submissive. Audrey told him to take her hunting with his pack, so he nip her legs to get her going. The others follow them as they ran into the forest. As he ran, he realize that this was the first time they all hunt together. Zamas was on his left while ariel was behind them. Guldo and joe was running together as dallas was helping ashley. He smile as he remember seeing wolf packs running during those nature shows and he is leading one. Well not just him as zamas was right beside him. He stop, sniffing around for some prey. The others spread out to find prey as well. Ashley let out a small howl and the others rush to where she was. There is the scent of deer in the air, sandy nodded at the others to let ashley take the lead.
Ashley was nervous but sandy gave her a short bark to give her courage. He nod at her to tell her to take the lead. Sandy watch as she start to follow the scent, going deeper into the forest. They follow her til she lead them to a flower meadow. Ashley duck into some tall grass to hide herself from the deer that was busy eating. There was two of them, a buck and a doe, looking around with their ears up to alert themselves for any predators. Sandy went slowly around while ariel decides to hide behind a tree, Zamas went the opposite way so no matter where the deer ran, they can catch at least one. Dallas and joe crept close, keeping themselves hidden in the tall grass.
The forest was quiet, like the quiet you get when you know something is wrong. The deer sense this, and quietly stop eating, rising their head to look around. Sandy focus on the buck, knowing how dangerous those hooves and antlers are, he leapt out of the grass towards the buck, snarling at the doe so it can start to run away. The buck begin to charge at him which sandy uses his jaws to hold the antlers from piercing his body, keeping the buck still as the rest begin to attack it. He kept dodging the front hooves as it tried to kick him. Zamas try to attack the doe by herself when she got kick by the doe as it rear up on it hind legs, using it front hooves to attack her.
Joe and guldo work together on the buck legs as it was going crazy to get loose by from sandy's jaw. Ariel helped zamas as ashley jump on the buck back, biting it neck hard, trying to kill it as it jump in place, trying to knock her off. Dallas uses his small size to get under the buck, clawing it underbelly, opening it so it guts spilled out.
Sandy let go of the antlers as he saw the buck getting weak. Rushing to help zamas and ariel, he jump on the doe back, biting it neck to break it, letting it go as it quickly died. His mouth was bleeding since the antlers was very sharp and he felt like he lost a fang from the buck's movement. He shook himself as he check over everyone, seeing that they got bruises and some cuts from the hooves' attack. He let out a loud howl, letting audrey's pack know that it was a successful hunt.
Zamas limp a bit before she felt herself healing. He look for ashley to take the first bite of the buck. She whine a bit seeing that she couldn't even kill it despite biting the neck. He gave a short bark to let her know it was ok since it is her first hunt. Everyone let her know she is ok by rubbing fur with her, comforting her. She grin before diving in the side. Pretty soon everyone join in, reducing the buck to nothing but bones. As for the doe, sandy decided to give it to audrey as thanks for letting them stay with them. They buried the bones, though zamas broke off a piece to give it to ashley as a keepsake.
Ashley thanks her as the others grab the doe, carrying it between them til they reach the house. Ivy and stacy was sitting outside, still in wolf forms. Stacy is a pure white wolf with blue eyes while ivy is a grey wolf with silver markings and has black stripes on her tail. They saw the doe, eyes widening in surprise as sandy let it go in front of them.
"Gift for your pack as thanks for letting us stay here. We already ate." He bark to gather his pack together before asking for a way to wash the blood off. Suddenly a familiar scent cross their noses as stan join them. He also was still in wolf form, having dirty blonde fur with a brown tail tip.
"Follow me." Was all he said as he lead them to a small river. His golden eyes watch in amusement as the water is very cold but there was no way he was to let them in the house being bloody. They quickly finish, going back, shaking the water off.
Stan lead them to a small den near the house since they was still in wolf form. The den was big enough to house them, cozy and warm too since there are seven of them. They fell asleep in a dog pile. Sandy was the last to fall asleep, wondering what ron and the rest of his friends was doing. He is surprise to find that he kinda miss them. The eastern pack, alex, angelo and conner. And steve, his doctor. He grunt a bit before admitting to himself he missed stripefur too.